


Voltron and Chill

by DancingDowager



Series: From Prompts [2]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: (it's still obvious), Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Awkward Flirting, Cute Fenris, F/M, Fluff, International Fanworks Day, International Fanworks Day 2019, Modern Kirkwall (Dragon Age), Never Say Never, Pre-Relationship, Voltron: Legendary Defender discussion, i'm still bad at titles, it's not posted yet but I'm optimistic, part of my Kirkwall University fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-29 04:31:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17801087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DancingDowager/pseuds/DancingDowager
Summary: Fenris has a new favourite show. Marian Hawke steals a quiet evening watching it with him.Previously titled 'Sitting watching cartoons'.





	Voltron and Chill

**Author's Note:**

> Another contribution to the International Fanworks Day prompt: characters doing fannish things.
> 
> Amazingly, this is the first piece I'm posting in the Dragon Age fandom, even though I've been writing in it for years. This fits in with my Kirkwall University AU, which I hope to put up here one day. No context is needed to understand it, though. 
> 
> Thanks very much for checking it out!

Marian caught a few seconds of strange voices when she staggered through her front door. They stopped abruptly as she bent to tug off her converse, along with the swell of backing music. When she was free of her shoes and made it to the living room, she found Fenris half-risen from his usual chair, a slightly strangled expression on his face.

“Watching tv? Unusual for you,” she said, flopping down onto the battered old sofa with a flump. It wheezed protests, dust and old glitter puffing out of its crevices.

Gradually, Fenris eased back down into his own chair. “It’s been known to happen. On occasion.”

“What is it?” Marian asked, peering at panels of primary colour, surprised. “A cartoon?”

Fenris didn’t answer at once, glancing briefly from the screen to her face, turned to look at his. “ _Voltron: Legendary Defender_ ,” he said at last, as though it pained him a little.

Marian swung her feet up onto the sofa, tucking them under one of Merril’s many cushions. “Right. So what’s it about?”

Fenris seemed surprised by the question, traces of a frown lingering. They’d be invisible to anyone who hadn’t spent as much time studying him as she had. “It’s a space opera, of sorts.”

“I assume that’s a technical term and this isn’t literally operatic?”

Finally a smile, and Marian’s heart clenched painfully inside her for a moment, sweet agony. “It’s a technical term.”

“Are those robots?” Marian asked, waving at the screen.

“Partially,” Fenris said, carefully. “How the Lions operate isn’t fully explained.”

“Lions?”

“Yes,” Fenris agreed, settling more easily into his chair, shoulders relaxing. “Together, the five Lions form a warrior machine named Voltron.”

“The legendary defender.”

He nodded.

“And Voltron… beats up the bad guys?”

“Essentially.”

Marian leaned across the seat cushions, grabbing at the snack bowl temptingly perched on the end. After a second of rustling, she ripped open a yoghurt-topped cereal bar and chewed, swallowing a mouthful of almond and apricot. “Would it make Merril cry?”

“That is hardly difficult, Hawke.”

“Fair,” she conceded with a smile. “Do you need to have seen the whole thing to understand it?”

“This is the first episode. I was… refreshing my memory.”

“Go on, then.”

He paused, long fingers hovering over the controls, tattoos stretching all the way to the tips. “You want to watch?”

“Sure,” Marian agreed, wondering how many more years it would be before Fenris realised she was always up for spending time with him. And Fenris was smart.

“If there’s something you would prefer -”

“Fenris, this is fine,” she said firmly. He didn’t look entirely convinced, so she grinned at him. “You like it, right? I reckon you’ve got taste. You’ve been hanging with me for years.”  Oh, she hoped that eye-roll was affectionate, rather than merely exasperated. “Go on.”

Shaking his head, Fenris back-tracked to the very start and hit play. Stars filled the screen.

“You can ask me questions, if you need.”

Marian pulled a face at that, eyebrow raised. Fenris chose to ignore her and the implication: the few times Fenris watched anything, he hated interruptions. He must really want her to like this, Marian realised. And with Fenris curled up round himself in the familiar black jeans and t-shirt, peacefully sharing the space with her, she figured she just might.

She kept the questions and commentary to a minimum, unwilling to push her luck. The show wasn’t hard to follow, and when the first episode ended and Fenris looked at her mutely, she was happy to nod at him to continue. Just sitting and being with him… that was what she needed, right now. A chance to admire without worrying, to not think about anything beyond the story and sniggering at the jokes. Fenris seemed to approve of that, she noticed. At least he appeared to turn softer and softer every time she laughed, unravelling into a loser ball, smile tugging at his lips.

Well void, he had nice lips.

When he caught her looking, brows pinching, she quickly stood. “Feel like a cuppa?”

“I… thankyou.”

Moments later, the kitchen was full of steam and the sound of the kettle boiling, and Marian grinned to herself when she realised Fenris had paused it to wait for her.

You’re pretty hopeless if you think _that’s_ a big deal, she told herself. She kept smiling anyway, and Fenris actually smiled back when slender fingers wrapped around the warmth of an espresso. He tilted the cup towards her, a silent ‘cheers’.

“So -” said Marian, sliding back into her dent in the sofa, cradling her tea near her mouth and hoping her heated cheeks would be blamed on the proximity, “- do those two fancy each other or what?”

Fenris chuckled, blowing slightly over the top of his coffee. “There is some debate about that.”

“Do I want to know?”

“Probably not.” His eyes looked greener than ever; the last of the sun was spilling through the window, gold and gleaming in the bright elven irises. “But I assure you there are plenty of people willing to argue about it, on both sides.”

“Of course there are.” She considered, free hand reaching idly for the snack bowl again. “Come on then. Let’s see if I ship it. If I do, it’s official.”

“Oh is it?” he said mildly, pressing play once again.

“Sure,” Marian insisted. “I’m the best matchmaker. Honest.”

For anyone except myself, anyway.

“I like him,” she mentioned a little later, when her mug was nearly empty and Fenris’ was drained, left on the floor.

“Keith?”

“Yeah. Guess I’m a sucker for the adorable badasses,” she said, lingering on Fenris’ back. He tilted his head behind him, white locks falling momentarily away from his eyes.

“I think he’s a little young for you,” he teased, softly smirking. His voice down to volcanic levels of hot, gentle as a purr.

“Dang, foiled again,” she quipped, and you could tell she had practice at this unrequited thing; her voice didn’t even falter around the wedge in her throat. “Guess I’ll have to look elsewhere.”

“Oh yes?”

 Maker, he was killing her.

Marian turned to look, gaze on each other thrilling the edges of her skin. He had to _know_.

“Yeah,” she said, and sure, it wasn’t intelligent, but it made sense. That was an achievement, at this point.

“Closer to home?”

Maker’s breath yes. Barely five feet away.

“… Maybe.”

And then his head tipped back and the moment was gone, stolen away like the last warmth in her tea. “It could hardly be further than home than space, I suppose.”

She swallowed the cold liquid down, shuddering with the taste. “I guess so.”

They lapsed back into silence, and the golden light faded and slipped from the room before either of them noticed. The third time Marian’s head dropped against the sofa back and she realised she’d missed something, she admitted defeat.

“Okay, I’m afraid I need to go to bed,” she said, sitting up and stretching. Fenris untangled himself from the embrace of his chair, a white square haloing his silhouette after he hit ‘stop’.

“You weren’t bored?”

“Nah man, I loved it. Gotta get me some psychic space mice.”

Fenris’ mouth twitched towards a smile, but his face was turning towards the careful scowl he sometimes wore when faced with social niceties.

“Thankyou. For trying it. This afternoon has been… pleasant.”

So awkward and it made her so happy. “Yeah. It was.”

“The new series is being released next month. I think we probably have time to watch the others beforehand.” He was looking at the wall, frowning into his own wayward fringe. “If you would like, of course.”

“I’d like,” she agreed, her heartbeat too loud in her own ears. “Sure.” Her agreement drove some of the stiffness from Fenris’ spine.

“Good. If you wouldn’t mind keeping this from Varric?”

Eh? “I mean, sure, if you want. But why? It’s not like he’s a snob, he’s not going to laugh at you for liking cartoons.”

“I know that,” Fenris agreed heavily. “It was his recommendation. But if he knows I actually watched it all he’ll be insufferable.”

Marian laughed, and Fenris’ eyes crinkled up at the corners with the sound.

“Quiznakking right, he will.”


End file.
